Globe secures P8-B debt to bolster data business

By Riza Lozada 

Communications giant Globe Telecom has signed a 10-year P8-billion term loan facility with BDO Unibank Inc. to finance the company’s capital expenditure and general corporate requirements.

Globe will allocate $750 million in capital expenditure (capex) this year which will be invested mostly in data-related projects including the deployment of LTE mobile and LTE@Home, increased network capacities and coverage, modernization of fixed-line data infrastructure for corporates and requirements for transmission facilities.

The company spent an estimated P36.7 billion in capex by the end of last year in which 65 percent were spent for data related requirements.

Globe generated all-time high consolidated service revenues of close to P120 billion last year, surpassing the previous record of P113.7 billion in 2015 by 6 percent.

The sustained revenue momentum, despite the competitive intensity in the market during the second half of 2016, was driven by the solid growth in data-related products across all segments, and robust subscriber growth for